University of California, Riverside

While draft genome sequences are available for the three mosquito species that are the subject of this proposal: Anopheles gambiae, Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus, active transposable elements (TEs) for efficient genetic analysis are not. Class 2 TEs isolated from other organisms are quickly inactivated when introduced into mosquitoes. The UCR team led by Susan Wessler, Peter Atkinson and Jason Stajich, will address this bottleneck through a novel strategy to exploit mosquito genome sequences to identify new mosquito TEs that may have superior mobility properties. They will focus their strategy in part on one type of TE called MITEs that were discovered in the laboratory of Dr. Wessler. As the most abundant component of the three mosquito genomes, MITEs have evolved mechanisms to evade genome surveillance and spread through populations. This project has five Aims. Aim 1 will use newly developed computer pipelines to annotate and characterize all class 2 TEs and their family relationships and identify candidate active TEs. Aim 2 will determine the small RNA profiles of the annotated TEs to find TEs that have evaded host surveillance. Aims 3 and 4 will test the mobility of candidate TEs by exploiting high throughput yeast and mosquito cell assays. In Aim 5, they will analyze a diversity panel of mosquito strains to detect TEs in the act of amplifying. The researchers seek to develop these new active mosquito TEs as incisive genetic tools which will directly increase the ability of researchers to identify mosquito genes responsible for the transmission of deadly human pathogens.